A VGA-HDMI cord can plug into my monitor via the VGA side and the HDMI into the output device. Is the LCD monitor output still going to be analog which would make that cord useless?

When you use a VGA cable coming out of the monitor, the monitor is giving out an analog signal through the VGA connection. For the monitor to give out a digital signal, you need a DVI or HDMI cable.

The VGA to HDMI cord just converts the analog signal into a digital signal so it's not completely useless, however the quality will not be as good as an HDMI to HDMI or DVI to DVI or HDMI to DVI